5. If an employee is entitled to receive 13th salary and during the year is absent with either sick leave or parental leave or maternity leave, is the employer obliged to pay the full 13th salary or pro rata payment for the months that the employee was working?

It should be noted though that in cases where such a provision is included in the written terms of employment, then the employer must pay the 13th salary in full. The same applies in cases where the employer has a practice of paying the entire 13th salary to other employees taking into account the above periods.

However, if in the written terms of employment, it is stated that only the periods when the employee receives a salary with physical presence in the company are taken into account when calculating the 13th salary, then the periods of absence with either sick leave or parental leave, will not be taken into account. In this case, it is up to the employer to give the entire 13th salary or a proportion for the months of service period in the company.

Regarding the calculation of 13th salary entitlement for an employee who is absent on maternity leave, please conduct the Department of Labour, here:

https://www.mlsi.gov.cy/mlsi/dl/dl.nsf/index_en/index_en?OpenDocument